This invention relates to a method of providing a friction bond between a liner and the inner wall face of an outer tube of a weapon barrel by means of a shrinking process.
To be able to reuse worn weapon barrels, it has been long known to re-drill the barrel and line it with a not self-supporting tube such as described, for example, in the "Handbook on Weaponry", second English edition, published in 1992 by Rheinmetall GmbH, Dusseldorf, Germany; pages 322-324. The inner tube (liner) is bonded to the inner face of the outer tube, for example, by means of a shrinking process which includes the steps of heating the outer tube and water-cooling the liner.
Particularly when liners of a large length/diameter ratio are used, the conventional process has been found to be disadvantageous since the bonding clearance between the liner and the outer tube is very small because during the heat shrinking process a maximum temperature of the outer tube must not be exceeded. Furthermore, risks are not insubstantial that the internal stress conditions of the barrel are destroyed.